1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus and a mark detection method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image reading apparatus such as a copier, scanner, printer, and facsimile, setting conditions and the like are conventionally input through an input unit each time a manuscript or the like is read. In recent years, however, development of an image reading apparatus enabling automatic input of setting conditions and the like when continuous reading processing of manuscripts and the like is performed is demanded.
According to a technology described in JP-A-2004-228951, for example, a margin is provided in a predetermined region of a manuscript or the like to be read and a processing selection is automatically made for the manuscript by a code written in the margin being recognized and read by an optical character reader (OCR) or the like.
However, a conventional image reading apparatus (such as one described in JP-A-2004-228951) has a problem of code recognition accuracy because the code for specifying setting conditions and the like is limited to a character form (for example, magnification 141%, 20 copies, and A3). The conventional image reading apparatus also has a problem of a long code reading time due to a heavy load of reading processing of code in character form. Further, the conventional image reading apparatus has a problem that a code cannot be written at any position in a margin of a manuscript in any form because a region where a code is written is limited to a region specified in advance and thus, it is necessary to use a manuscript in predetermined form.